NEW YORK – One of the hardest things for a small business owner to do, especially in the first few years of a company’s existence, is to take a vacation, even if it’s just for a few days.
Many owners struggle with taking time off, and when they do finally decide to take a break, tussle with themselves over how much work to do while they’re away and how much contact to have with employees and customers. Some are able to put down some boundaries, while some find it just about impossible to let go.
“Your business is your baby – you really don’t believe someone else would come in there and handle it with care,” said Renee Wood, who’s contemplating her first vacation since starting her retail business, The Comfort Co., in Geneva, Ill., five years ago.
Wood, whose company sells sympathy gifts, or items people can give to the newly bereaved, said “I didn’t trust that someone else would handle them (clients) with the same loving care that I did.” She didn’t want to close the store, because that would have meant a loss in revenue.
But five years into the business, she’s finding that her life is out of balance, and that by not taking a vacation, she’s missed spending very special time with her four children. She can take a vacation now because she finally took on an employee who she does trust to take care of the business.
Still, like most small business owners, she’ll stay in touch during her five-day trip with a hand-held computer, doing as much customer service as she can.
Technology is making it easier for many people, not just small business owners to work or stay in touch with the office while they’re away. In an AP-Ipsos poll released last week, about one in five respondents said they did some work while on vacation, using technology like cell phones and laptops. The poll surveyed 1,000 randomly chosen adults.
It took Suzie Boland three years after she started her public relations agency in 1999 before she took a real vacation, but now she’s taking trips and keeping in touch with her company only minimally. Boland, president of RFB Communications Group in Tampa, Fla., prepares her company for her absence more than a month ahead.
Boland lets clients know well ahead of time she’ll be on vacation, so they can plan to get their projects to her long before she leaves. And she has confidence that her staff of two can handle client needs while she’s gone.
“I’m fortunate because I have good people here,” she said.
Boland has followed the mantra of “delegate, delegate, delegate,” something business experts say is critical for a company to be well-run, and not just when the boss is away.
“It’s the element of good management, learning to delegate,” she said. “For a small business owner, that’s a tough thing to do – you have to wean yourself away as well as educate people.” Jennefer Witter is taking her first vacation since starting her New York-based PR firm, The Boreland Group Inc., four years ago.
She realized she needed a break after a client told her, “you have got to chill, you have got to go away.” “I realized he’s right, I would not be benefiting anyone if I was totally exhausted,” she said.
Witter also has taken on help to enable herself to get away. But she’s also chosen the week of July 4 for her trip to London, knowing that many of her clients will also be away and won’t need her services.
Still, it isn’t easy for small business owners to leave it all behind, no matter how much they’ve prepared their companies.
“I always still worry,” said Columbus, Ohio, architect Jeanne Cabral. “I still am concerned that things are going to go badly while I’m gone.” Cabral said clients do get upset when they’re ready to start on a project – very often one that’s been long-delayed – just when she’s ready to leave. But Cabral is philosophical: “My clients go on vacation and they don’t have any hesitation about going.” And coming home can be hard, because there’s usually a message from a prospective client who ended up choosing another architect.
But, again, she puts it in perspective. “They might not have hired you if you were there that minute anyhow.”
Tamara Wilson, who owns a Seattle-based PR firm under her name, takes vacations to Maui that leave her quite out of touch. That’s a big change from when she started her company nearly 12 years ago, and she gave clients total access to her during her time off. The result was she wasn’t taking relaxing vacations.
She said it took nearly seven years before she did take a trip that helped her shake off the stress. And, like other owners, she’s able to do that because she put together a capable staff.
She also is philosophic about clients who might prefer her to stay home and work for them.
“If you want me to be the best that I can for you, you need to let me take off time to relax as well as regroup,” she said.
